2011 Western Manitoba Flooding Photos

Farmer overlooking the flood, originally uploaded by Cody La Bière.

As many of you know - I live in Western Manitoba, well Brandon, but my family lives in Westman too. The entire region is experiencing incredibly nasty floods that are some of the worst in several decades. It's nuts. Places that are generally dry in April are 5 feet deep in water.

To make things worse, mosquito season is already out and with lakes of water that are going to go nowhere, this summer will possibly be the most bug infested summer of all time.

Check out my Flickr Set of photos taken of the Souris River flooding and the flooding at my parents farm - that's caused by local Oak Lake overflowing and having nowhere else to drain so it heads south.

Enjoy!

LINK: http://www.flickr.com/photos/codyrl/sets/72157626554899778/

Inaccessible road

Inaccessible road, originally uploaded by Cody La Bière.

When we last came out here on May 3, the water was much lower, only a small stream flowing, now it's pretty substantial, I have no clue if it will retreat anytime soon.

Compared to May 3: www.flickr.com/photos/codyrl/5687716405

www.flickr.com/photos/codyrl/5687723885/

Enjoying a Burly Wine!

Enjoying a Burly Wine!, originally uploaded by Cody La Bière.

Burly Wine is one of the most sought after products by my favourite brewery, Half Pints. It's pretty hard to find in the first place, and they dont plan on making anymore for atleast a few years. But lucky for me, the local liquor store in my town has several bottles, so I scoop some up whenever possible.

The nickname of this beer is the "Winnipeg winter warmer", as it has 10.5% ABV and even on coldest of -40 Winter nights, warms your body. I decided to pick up a bottle for a birthday present. However, it hadn't been warm for weeks so I postponed drinking this beer until today. It's absolutely beautiful out, the flood waters are starting to go back and it's a great day so why not?

Has a nice cream coloured foamy head, very dark coppery brown hazy appearance, a sweet, somewhat hoppy aroma, very sweet.. caramel taste to it, and itself is a bit creamy in texture to the tongue. Tasty tasty beverage. I know a few friends who aren't a fan of this beer, but I absolutely love it.

www.flickr.com/photos/codyrl/5720406762/

C'est vraiment «la fin du monde!»

C'est vraiment «la fin du monde!», originally uploaded by Cody La Bière.

Today is April 30 - but living in Western Manitoba you would *NOT* think that. Just going outside, there are two feet of brand new snow in some parts. It feels more like it would be December 30. It's damn bitter cold out. A temperature of -8C with a windchill of -15C. Generally it's +15C right now. Hell, it was that warm yesterday! Frankly, we don't need THIS snow, the fields are over saturated and our neighbours have warned us that we should prepare for a flood, there's some flooding occuring a few kilometres away and it's heading our way. With all this new fresh snow, it's scary shit.

On the upside, it quickly chills my beer!

Lays Kettle Cooked Ketchup Chips

Lays Kettle Cooked Ketchup Chips, originally uploaded by Cody La Bière.

A few months ago I had the idea that one sort of snack food that would effing rock would be Kettle Cooked ketchup chips, cuz ketchup chips are awesome, and so are kettle cooked chips. I didn't know that Lays would be introducing a new line of Kettle Cooked chips, which included a ketchup variety. I was excited to try them.

I'm not a fan of Lays' chips, their chips are brittle, thin, quantity/not quality and generally boring - especially ketchup chip wise.

I wanted to see what ketchup chips done kettle style would be like.

They're a bit pricy, $3.50 for a 180 gram bag, compared to $2.50 for around 220 gram bag of regular chips.

The chips are thicker than the regular Lays chips, and has a crunch that is nice, like anything kettle cooked. Compared to their regular chips, thankfully they're not brittle and break on you when you bite into it.

The downside - the "ketchup flavour" - Lays has been trying to "improve" the ketchup flavour of their chips for the past 15 years or so, and it's only gone downhill. Their ketchup chips are far from ketchupy. I call the chips "Salt and Vinegar and Sugar and Garlic Chips" as I don't taste ONE hint of ketchup at all.

Dear Lays, completely change your ketchup recipe, it's not ketchupy at all. The flavour is minimal in the kettle chips. But strangely enough, the more I'm eating, the more I'm enjoying it.

Next - I hope to see Old Dutch bring out a ketchup variety of their chips. that thick intoxicating ketchup aroma would be perfect with their kettle cooked line of chips. Old Dutch makes damn good ketchup chips!